You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two...

This morning marked my first big snow in a neighborhood. Work opened two hours late (excellent news for my cold, which just wants to drink hot things and sleep). I was pulling my boots on, ready to tramp out into the snow and shovel out my car when the doorbell rang.

This is unusual in my house. My roommates and I are not particularly social people. We'll venture out to find society, but we rarely invite it in. Certainly not at 8:40 in the morning.

On my steps was a boy with a shovel and a tantalizing offer: he would shovel off my front walk and porch for $10 and the back for $5.

I don't care about the back. I only walk out the back door to take the garbage out, and I try to take the garbage out as infrequently as possible- it's a man's job. I considered asking the boy in to take my garbage out, but he was covered with snow, so I decided against it.

I said, "How about cars? Do you do cars?"

He said he would shovel out my car and scrape it for $3.

This is probably the best deal I have ever been offered in my life. I told him to wait right there and I would get the money and get him the scraper from inside my car.

In my wallet, I had $10 and a fifty. I didn't really think this kid had the capacity to make change, so I gave him $10 to do my car and then whatever else he figured was worth $10. I got my scraper for him, and I went downstairs to take a shower.

Though a country bumpkin, I am not quite as trusting as all that. My shower was full of hot water and visions that this kid would take my $10 and run, leaving me to- god forbid!- shovel out my own car. With wet hair. That would freeze to my head. Or that he would steal my ice scraper- I have one fabulous ice scraper- and use it to write in the snow on my front lawn: "YOU'RE AN IDIOT!".

Luckily, when I headed upstairs, fully dressed, my car was shoveled and scraped and my wonderful ice scraper was leaning on the porch. This kid was my new hero. My work day just got that much easier.

In my car, I was thinking what an enterprising young man he was. His classmates were sleeping late or playing in the snow or somehow enjoying their day off, and he was running a profitable business. Then I noticed how clear the roads were. Strange that school should be closed. Maybe school wasn't closed. Maybe my neighborhood had a Fagin type character that coerced young boys into skipping school to shovel snow and bring the profits to him! Eek.

When I got to work, I called my Mom. She said schools are closed today. Excellent. I love living in a neighborhood.